Chawla on course in Asian snooker

Kish Island (Iran), May 26: Kamal Chawla won both his matches while fellow Indians Brijesh Damani and Sourav Kothari had mixed bag of results on the first day of the Asian 6-Red Snooker Championship here.

Chawla outplayed Iran's Milad Valihesari 5-1 on Monday and then blanked Karin Fatima of Syria 5-0 in the preliminary league to stay firm on course for a spot in the knockouts.

Kothari lost a touch-and-go match to Ahmed Saif of Qatar 2-5 before edging past Hong Kong's Au Chi Wai 5-4 after trailing 2-4 and down 8-16 in the decider with two reds left. Kothari kept his cool to take the ninth frame to post his first win.

Damani lost both his matches as he went down 4-5 to Hong Kong's Fung Kwok Wai and 2-5 to Sharam Changezee (Pakistan). The Indian needs to win both his remaining league matches to keep alive his knockout berth hopes.